Assets committee to probe China Youth Corps again

‘MASTER OF DECEPTION’:An anonymous member of the committee said Chiang Ching-kuo appeared amiable in his later years to divert the public’s attention from his dark past

By Chen Yu-fu / Staff reporter

The Ill-Gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee said it is to hold a third hearing to determine whether the China Youth Corps (CYC) is a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) affiliate, a source said yesterday.

The committee said that the corps was founded by former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) to “brainwash” young people, allowing him to consolidate his power and helping him become president, said a committee member, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Chiang founded the corps and served as its first director when he was director of the Ministry of National Defense’s department of politics.

He was also responsible for founding the Shipai Training Camp (石牌特訓班) for training secret agents, which he used to counter the forces of the Soviet Union and Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and carry out spying missions and assassinations in China.

The source said Chiang was a master of deception who appeared amiable during his later years to direct people’s attention away from the fact that he had been the nation’s top intelligence officer since 1950.

On March 18, 1954, during a speech at the Shipai Training Camp, Chiang chastised his political rival, former Taiwan Provincial Government chairman Wu Kuo-chen (吳國楨), in front of legions of intelligence officers, MND officials, troops and trainees.

“[Wu] might have located our weaknesses, but the party [KMT], political operatives, intelligence and the CYC that he criticizes are the foundation for opposing the CCP and countering the Soviet Union,” Chiang allegedly said at the time.

According to a declassified file at the Academia Historica, Chiang on June 28, 1967, issued a directive to the CYC, ordering it to invite 500 university professors nationwide to hear their views on then-CCP chairman Mao Zedong’s (毛澤東) persecution of Chinese intellectuals.

The goal was to fight a psychological war against China, and “appeal to mainland intellectuals by using intellectuals in the free world,” the document said.

Chiang presided over regular meetings on psychological warfare, as well as secret meetings during which members of the KMT, MND and CYC all made proposals, which is evidence that the CYC was directly overseen by the KMT, the source said.

The CYC, as the KMT’s youth campaign organization, was a tool for Chiang to cultivate a faction to counter his rivals within the KMT, they said.

It was also responsible for brainwashing hundreds of thousands of young Taiwanese by inculcating patriotism, soliciting military instructors to join the KMT, having people recite Chiang Kai-shek’s teachings and organizing summer and winter camps, the source said.

This story has been viewed 2030 times.

Comments will be moderated. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned.